Chapter 25: Like It’s About to Fall

 Hye-yeon tried to take me to the training room, saying she’d teach me various fighting methods learned in the A-rank class since there were no classes anyway.

Only when I told her it was hard to move my body because I got hurt during the last attack did she finally back down.

After chatting about nothing much for a long time, Hye-yeon returned to her own room.

I’m not sure if it’s just playing pretend friends, or if she really thinks of us as friends.

I hope it’s the latter, but since it’s a forced relationship, it’s probably one where she just accommodates me moderately until she gets bored and ditches me.

It’s just that I was lucky not to get caught.

And she’s getting along quite well with the villain she hates so much.

Though the problem is she hasn’t been answering calls lately.

I spent three days like that in the room where no one visited.

There were no classes anyway, and there wasn’t a single teacher in the world who would scold me for not showing up to the classroom to make an appearance.

Nothing much else happened, except for having to put back a bunch of snacks I had picked up after hearing the card Si-hyun gave me had insufficient funds.

Literally, nothing else happened.

Incredibly boringly so.

While spending time like that, I thought about visiting the class president who was apparently still alive, so after washing up, I headed to the auditorium used commonly by E and F-rank students.

Countless students lay groaning in pain on the sickbeds.

A wide variety of humans were gathered, from students who looked relatively unharmed to those missing their entire lower bodies.

The boy’s name doesn’t come to mind.

I only know he’s the class president.

I thought about calling Hye-yeon to ask, but then I realized she wouldn’t know some F-rank small fry.

So I walked around for a long time, past numerous sickbeds in the vast auditorium.

Fortunately, there were nameplates with names and classes attached to the handles next to the beds, so it seemed it wouldn’t be too hard to find him.

The wizard friends whose chests were half split open but luckily survived, the unlucky D-ranks, the E-rank friends hit directly by building debris, and us, who suffered the most casualties despite only being hit by surrounding fragments.

Moving step by step in order, I found the area where kids from my class were lying in rows.

Hardly anyone had all their limbs intact.

Even so, if they just graduate, they’ll probably be able to live well in a place where survival isn’t an issue.

Names I don’t know, names that sound vaguely familiar, names obscured by dried blood from palm prints.

Before long, I found the boy whose head was half crushed.

Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t died.

Though looking at him staring blankly into the air with his mouth open and a foolish expression, I wondered if there was any meaning to it.

Next to the boy who was drooling, a girl missing one leg was wiping his mouth.

Just then, perhaps sensing my gaze, she looked at me and showed a slightly surprised expression.

“I didn’t think you’d come.”

“Even in class, you always gave off the feeling that whatever happened wasn’t your business.”

“It isn’t my business.”

“Then why did you come?”

“Who knows.”

Was she a girl from the same class?

Her face looks somewhat familiar.

After staring at me for a long time, it was the girl who broke the silence first.

“…He doesn’t even remember who he is or what he used to do.”

“The words that come out are all hopelessly slurred.”

“I came because I had something I was curious about, but it seems it won’t be much use then.”

‘Should I have moved back then?’

‘And when was the time I should have moved?’

‘I wanted to ask words that had no purpose or meaning, just a feeling.’

“Is being alive like that really being alive?”

At those words, the girl assumes a posture as if she’s about to get up and punch me right away.

“…Get lost.”

Then she ground her teeth and spoke quietly.

“Okay.”

Honestly, I don’t think I’m much different from that boy either.

My head got a bit messed up in the lab, but I’m somehow enduring by getting high on drugs, and I bury loneliness, fatigue, and suffering with people around me, coffee, cigarettes, and hobbies.

Even more so in the sense that nothing will get better, and living like this seems rather meaningless.

I almost blurted out that he looked stupid in front of the girl sitting next to her.

Well, he probably is stupid.

His brain must have turned to mush.

Can’t the protagonist do something about that?

One of the pretty friends following her around must be an amazing healer.

Maybe it’s a waste to use even a little power on trash at the bottom like them.

I wandered around the school grounds for a long time, continuing my thoughts.

Because if I stopped, the scenery of the lab and the operating table always came to mind.

If Team Leader Joo or the Department Head were alive, I could have been buried in hatred, muttering only about revenge, and lived comfortably, but that’s quite difficult too.

Because both were just ordinary people with no abilities, just smart heads, so they died far too easily.

If I just found them, they wouldn’t be able to escape anywhere…

—————————

The phone in my pocket rings.

Assuming it was obviously Si-hyun unni, I pressed the call button and immediately brought it to my ear.

The voice I heard was the middle-aged man’s voice remaining in my memory.

– Is that Ha-rin?

‘Did he tell me his name?’

‘Ah, Si-hyun unni must have told him.’

“…It’s been a while since I heard your voice.”

– Sorry, but it seems you’ll have to come out this weekend.

“What’s there to be sorry about?”

“You even sent me to school.”

– You don’t ask the reason.

“Is a reason necessary?”

– It is.

– Just because I helped you a bit doesn’t mean you need to listen to me blindly.

“Then why did you call in the first place?”

– It’s something difficult to discuss over the phone.

“Should I just go to the hideout?”

– No.

– I’ll come to the front of the school.

The call ended with those words.

The weekend arrived relatively quickly.

Thinking I should just wait after going out the school’s main gate, just as I left the school and thought about entering a decent café, a man in a rather luxurious-looking sedan rolled down the window and gestured to me.

It was the president or chairman whose name I didn’t know, wearing sunglasses.

Without a word, I got into the back seat of the car.

The car started, and for a while, there was no conversation.

I just looked out at the city through the window.

Numerous skyscrapers soared as if piercing the sky.

Among them, some buildings even seemed to float entirely in the air.

“Is school treating you alright?”

“Yes, it’s bearable.”

“I heard folks from the next town blew up a building and took the hearts of wizard friends your age.”

“Seems you weren’t caught up in it.”

Was it because of my appearance?

Or because I didn’t bring up the story?

It’s understandable he might misunderstand like that.

“I was caught up in it.”

“Almost died, too.”

Or maybe he just didn’t care whatever happened.

He always seemed like he was trying to let me run loose.

“How was it?”

“What was?”

“A wizard’s heart is quite expensive.”

“It’s one of the things the Chinese particularly love.”

“…”

“Isn’t it dirty?”

“Well, I was just scared.”

“If those guys were weak, it would have just seemed dirty.”

“That’s true too.”

When the car stopped at a red light, the conversation resumed.

“By the way, what about Si-hyun unni?”

“I can’t reach her, the card she gave me has no balance, she’s suddenly become hard to see.”

“Yes, she’s become hard to see.”

The light turned green, and the car turned left.

It was a downhill road.

Just like falling.

Then it started entering some property.

At first, I thought it was a park.

Because lush green grass was laid out everywhere, forming a quite tidy space.

Passing two slightly curved pine trees, the car stopped in a parking lot.

The man and I got out of the car and stretched.

While I was stretching for a long time, he approached me and handed me something.

“Si-hyun asked me to give this to you.”

It was a gold necklace that looked unremarkable and a photo of a young child resembling Si-hyun unni.

Red eyes and brown hair.

The same cat-like features, looking quite cute.

The man slowly limped forward.

I followed behind him, looking at the photo for a long time.

We enter a building.

Climb the stairs.

The hallways are filled only with people in black suits.

Women were visible sporadically, but everyone wore black clothes.

A somewhat fragrant smell.

The gloomy face of the drug addict who brought me drugs last time.

Our eyes met, but he doesn’t greet me cheerfully like usual.

He just waves his hand listlessly with a somber expression.

I bowed my head slightly and passed by.

Again, people in black clothes in the hallway.

Flowers, pure white flowers, probably chrysanthemums.

Again, the hallway. I casually wore the shoes I usually wear, but everyone else is wearing dress shoes.

And entering an empty room, I see a single photo surrounded by flowers.

She was smiling brightly.

With an expression I had never seen before.